The 4 reasons I switched from Google to Bing

4. Bing shows more video, if you can bear to look

For whatever reason, the conventional wisdom is that Bing is the porn search engine of choice. Wander through some of Reddit's Microsoft forums, and it'll eventually come up. Heck, The Daily Dot even dedicated an entire article to it.

Part of the reason is that, even with filtering turned off, Google now takes a rather puritanical attitude toward filtering copyrighted videos, while Microsoft has adopted a more libertarian approach. Bing simply shows you videos about your search topic from around the Web, whether it be "baseball" or "boobs."

That's not to say that Bing is a shadowy corner of the Web full of smut and depravity. Thumbnail images of anything Bing thinks is for adults only are actually blurred out by default. But if you're searching for something tagged Not Safe for Work, be aware that Microsoft will show it to you (assuming your search filtering options allow for it, of course).

Mark Hachman

Microsoft's Bing treats you like an adult, if that's what you're searching for. (Note that you can filter out X-rated searches on both Bing and Google.)

Oddly enough, neither Google nor Microsoft shrinks much from violence. Both turned up what I assume to be complete videos of the various hostage beheadings in the Middle East, none of which I cared to watch.

A snap to switch

If you're a lifelong Googler and Bing's advantages intrigue you, great. Here's how to switch.

To change your search provider in Chrome, click the vertical ellipsis (the three vertical dots) icon in the top right, then scroll down to "Settings". Then go down to this section, here.

Both Microsoft and Google offer their own browsers to go along with their own search engines. With Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome, both companies preconfigure their browsers to use their own search engines by default, accessible via the search bar at the top of the screen. (Of course, you can visit bing.com or google.com and search there anytime you'd like.)

Switching Chrome's search provider to Bing is relatively simple: In the upper right corner, you'll see a tiny menu icon that looks like three horizontal lines on top of each other. Click it. Near the bottom of the drop-down menu, you'll see "Settings." That, in turn, will lead you to a second menu where, halfway down, you'll have the option of configuring your search provider.

IDG

To change your search provider in Chrome, click the vertical ellipsis (the three vertical dots) icon in the top right, then scroll down to "Settings". Then go down to this section, here.

Microsoft hides its search engine configurations as well. If you have IE set up to use Google, go to the URL bar and click the magnifying-glass (search) icon. At the bottom right of the drop-down menu, click Add. Click the tiny Bing icon at the left bottom to set Microsoft's search engine once again as your default.

IDG

Edge should be preconfigured to Bing. (It will be locked to Bing if you use Windows 10 S on the Surface Laptop or an educational machine.)

About the only change that Bing currently foists upon you is sending you to Bing Maps, not Google Maps. And if you're searching for videos, guess what: Google's YouTube isn't exactly Bing's first choice.

Bing offers as-good-as-Google search capabilities, plus many little added conveniences and rewards to entice you to switch. Doing so takes just seconds. Are these enough to make you try out Bing yourself? Let us know in the comments.

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